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Obviously, like hopefully many people, I’ve been following the WikiLeaks CIA revelations, and closely. It’s too early for too many conclusions, if only because WikiLeaks has announced much more will flow from that same pipeline. But one thing is already clear: the CIA is -still- a club that sees enemies behind every tree, and behind every TV set too. Which is not as obvious a world view as it may seem; it’s just something we’ve become used to.

Moreover, as we see time and again, organizations like the CIA and NATO have no qualms about ‘creating’ enemies if they are in short supply. The flavor du jour has now been, for years, Russia, but don’t be surprised if another one is cultivated alongside it. ISIS, China, North Korea, plenty of options, and plenty of media more than willing to aid the cultivation process. It’s a well-oiled machine geared towards making something out of nothing, a machine very adept at making you believe anything it wants you to.

In this way, our friends can become our enemies, and our enemies our friends. What gets lost in translation is that this way in reality we become our own worst enemies. While the upper and most secretive layers of society, filled with folk of questionable psychological constitution -sociopaths and psychopaths-, get to chase their dreams of wealth and power, those who try to live normal decent lives are, for that very purpose, increasingly subjected to poverty, misery and fear. As our economies decline further, this will only get worse.

Who needs your -conscious- vote or voice if these can be easily manipulated? Or do you not think you’re being manipulated? How many of you, American or European, think Russia is an actual threat to you? I’m afraid by now there’s a majority on each continent who perceive Putin as an evil force. The president of a country that spends one-tenth on its military of what the US does. Trump’s announced military spending increase alone is almost as much as Russia spends in a whole year.

If Putin is really the threat he’s made out to be, to both Europe and the US, he must be extremely smart; merely devious wouldn’t do it. A man who can be an active threat to two entire continents and almost a billion people while spending a fraction on building that threat of what those he threatens do, must be a genius. Or the victim of media-politico manipulation.

But we don’t stop there. As the CIA spying and hacking files once again make abundantly clear, America increasingly seeks its enemies at home. This may be presented in the shape of Donald Trump, or terrorists on US soil, imported or not, but claiming that we can still tell a real threat from an invented one is no longer credible. We are led along on a propaganda leash 24/7, and the best thing about it is we believe we are not. That’s why it’s a good idea to pay close attention to what WikiLeaks is telling us.

The most extreme example of the political machinery turning our friends into enemies is probably right there, in the WikiLeaks and whistleblower corner of society. Earlier today I wrote:

The CIA spent a huge wad of taxpayer money on this, and then lost it all. It’s early days to say what this will mean for the agency’s abilities, and the nation’s safety, as well as that of American citizens, but it’s not good. Question is: who’s going to investigate how this could have happened? (Snowden and Kim Dotcom could)… And who’s going to repair the damage done? Anyone could be spying on your phone and your TV by now, not just the CIA -as if that wouldn’t be bad enough.

Then later I saw I wasn’t the only one who had thought of this:

Edward Snowden and Kim Dotcom and Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning are ‘the enemy’, so say our ‘leaders’. They have received this honorable label for exposing secrets these same leaders were trying to hide from us. Secrets most of us, if we think it over, would say should not be kept from us. The NSA spying on the American people, or the CIA turning your phones and TVs and cars into objects that can be used against you, these are things that don’t belong in our societies.

Still, as I’ve always said, if they can do it -from a technical point of view-, they will, damn the law. So we will have to make very sure the laws keep up with these developments, or we’re defenseless. The Obama administration hasn’t been much help with this, and the rest of Washington won’t be either, they’re not just part of the machine, they are the engine that drives the machine. Obama allegedly gave in to the CIA for fear of ending up like JFK and the rest, along with the press, is under control too.

So perhaps Trump is our best chance at putting a stop to this coup, this deep state, from taking over. If we still can. And for that we might well need Snowden and Dotcom and Assange, who are not the enemies they are made out to be, they are the smartest among us, or at least they belong right up there. And they are not only the smartest, they are the bravest too. Locking them up would be a huge disservice to our societies, it would be much better to ask them to help us figure out what game the hell is being played.

One thing the WikiLeaks files accomplished is they made and and all accusations of Russian hacking, and of links between Trump and Russia, utterly meaningless in one fell swoop. Because the CIA has acquired the capability, both through hacking Russian files and through coding, to leave ‘footprints’ that make it look like the Russians left them. And the only ‘proof’ there ever was for all these accusations was based on these footprints. That’s one narrative that must now be restarted from scratch -just one of many.

All we need now is for Trump to figure out who his enemies are, and who his friends. He already knows the CIA is not his friend, but has he figured out yet that the whistleblowers are not his enemy? And has his crew? Kim Dotcom is right, Trump is in real danger, he’s been watched, and being watched, 24/7. Whether Obama ordered that or not is not very relevant. There are more urgent matters at hand.

And somewhere along the way he’s going to have to figure out that chasing women and children around the country and out of it is not just ugly, it’ll cost him too much sympathy too. But so far all protests come from the Democrats and their supporters, who have all been left voiceless and shapeless by the election and now see their Russian conspiracy narratives blown to smithereens too, so why wouldn’t he please his own voters for a bit longer?

Well, for one thing, because he has to start to realize he’s going to need very broad support, and soon, be a president for all Americans so to speak, to fend off the CIA et al, and in what may be the hardest thing to do, he needs to invoke transparency, explain to people exactly what he does, and why, to drain the deep swamp.

If he fails in all this, and for now the odds point in that direction, those who protest him today will feel validated, right, and winners. They will be tragically wrong. Because if Trump loses this, the CIA wins. And then we will all live in 1984 for as far into the future as we can see.

I know there’s a lot that’s not to like about Trump and Bannon and all those guys. However, look at it this way: they are the only ones who can keep the doors of the vault from slamming shut for the rest of our lives, leaving time for y’all to wake up and find a president who doesn’t seek to turn your friends into your enemies. At least you’ll still have that choice.

With present-day Washington, Democrat or Republican, there’s no such choice. They’re CIA, as are the media. Kim Dotcom tweeted this too today:

Because the CIA has acquired the capability, both through hacking Russian files and through coding, to leave ‘footprints’ that make it look like the Russians left them. And the only ‘proof’ there ever was for all these accusations was based on these footprints.

So we need to rely on a pathological liar who wants to give another 54 billion to the MIC and reward corporate America with tax advantages and regulatory reform while the populace faces the Republican version of austerity? I don’t think so.

I’m right there with you on that one, Hotrod. If the logic has gotten so muddled that Trump seems like a good alternative to someone rational, then all is lost. If the middle class have to lose the little bit of help they got on healthcare to make the rich, richer, and that seems ok to avoid something as foggy as the ‘Deep State’, which is the far right’s definition of providing some entitlements from taxes back to ‘the people’, then count me out. I’ll sit this one out on the sidelines watching in horror as mentally ill Trump let’s Ryan roast what’s left of the American working stiffs.

I’d go along with hotrod and ExponentialAbsurdity but, since I doubt any candidate could really have addressed our predicaments (since they are predicaments), maybe Trump can at least do something for this one little thing, though it’s not clear at all that he has any inclination to do anything sensible.

The comparison to Trump has often been made with Andrew Jackson. For better or for worse, it appears appropriate. But just like for Jackson, the true enemy is the banking system and our proclivity towards debt, and kicking the can down the road…like we will have to do again by March 15.

As long as we allow (or propel) ourselves into debt slavery, it will be as fruitless to fight the deep state as to build a wall North of Mexico. “Just say No” is the solution to the drug war, and we just cannot do it. No can you refuse to buy that shiny new F150, instead of nursing your old Capri a few more miles.

In a paper money system backed by debt you must continually compound the debt or you get a nasty thing called a Depression. Trump will have no choice but to keep increasing the debt, unless TPTB have decided now is the time to hit the wall. It will happen eventually. My beef is that until that time the right wing will spend like crazy for their donors building a wall, more nukes, more tanks, tax breaks, more pollution, etc. Anything to favor the already wealthy in a massively corrupt system.

POINTING OUT TRUMP’S MANY FLAWS DOES NOT MAKE ONE A FAN OF OBAMA OR THE CLINTONS. Why is this the knee jerk reaction of most people? Why can’t we admit that there was only a choice between two really crappy candidates? Or, can’t the system be held up to a mirror for fear of what will be seen.
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Cooler heads look at the people rioting against Trump as the true deplorables. I see them as mostly scared leftists and millennials who just cannot accept that their actions have largely allowed and strengthened the deep state. Our education system is mostly responsible. And possibly the inability of their parents to encourage them into moral religions.
No matter what you think about the relationship between mankind and God, the major challenge is that we think of ourselves as omnipotent, and in no way in need of self examination or responsible for the mess we are making of this world..

“One thing the WikiLeaks files accomplished is they made and and all accusations of Russian hacking, and of links between Trump and Russia, utterly meaningless in one fell swoop. ”

I have followed your posts for many years and enjoyed them, particularly when you could still differentiate between fact and assertion. I have an incredibly low level of trust for the CIA but I still find myself disappointed to read statements like that above and you taking it as a given that Obama backed off in order to avoid assassination. That’s some real tin-foil hat stuff and I always pictured you in a fedora.

It would be fair to say that accusations of Russian hacking are suspect in the context of the latest revelations but not “meaningless” nor, how did you phrase it “utterly blown to pieces.” I’m not going to play your polarization game where Russia = Good and CIA = Bad. You used to do nuance quite well but now…in the words of your new hero…”Sad!”

It’s still quite possible that Russia subverted our election process and it’s still quite possible that we know this from multiple sources rather than a single avenue where the Dark State (whatever TF that is around here from one moment to the next) planted a smoking gun with Vlad’s prints all over it (“You coppers got it all wrong I tell ya…I’ve been framed!!!”). I agree that Snowden and some others should get medals rather than condemnation but wouldn’t necessarily say that about Assange until I see his pay stubs. Putin should get one too for working with a crap budget, a good temperament and a heart of gold (It’s gold right? Something down the periodic chart…maybe Plutonium?).

Trump will start a shooting war long before he does anything about the Hydra you call the Deep State. He is cross-breeding with reptiles as we speak and making the swamp warmer, deeper and more fetid. If he’s our only remaining hope then, as the saying goes, ” Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.”

I’m going down my list of formerly rejected POTUS candidates like they were old girlfriends I let get away. Romney looked so bad a few years ago and looks like Lincoln today. There are others. Sigh.

“One thing the WikiLeaks files accomplished is they made and and all accusations of Russian hacking, and of links between Trump and Russia, utterly meaningless in one fell swoop. ” I have followed your posts for many years and enjoyed them, particularly when you could still differentiate between fact and assertion. I have an incredibly low level of trust for the CIA but I still find myself disappointed to read statements like that above and

Thank you.

you taking it as a given that Obama backed off in order to avoid assassination.

I said: Obama allegedly gave in to the CIA for fear of ending up like JFK How that translates as taking it for a given I don’t know.

That’s some real tin-foil hat stuff and I always pictured you in a fedora.

It would be fair to say that accusations of Russian hacking are suspect in the context of the latest revelations but not “meaningless” nor, how did you phrase it “utterly blown to pieces.” I’m not going to play your polarization game where Russia = Good and CIA = Bad. You used to do nuance quite well but now…in the words of your new hero…”Sad!”

You’re overplaying your hand. But yes, since all Russia accusations could now have originated with the CIA -we will likely never know-, they are now all meaningless. Nothing to do with Russia = Good. I would agree with CIA = Bad though. And calling Trump my hero is just real cheap and dumb.

It’s still quite possible that Russia subverted our election process and it’s still quite possible that we know this from multiple sources rather than a single avenue where the Dark State (whatever TF that is around here from one moment to the next) planted a smoking gun with Vlad’s prints all over it (“You coppers got it all wrong I tell ya…I’ve been framed!!!”).

It doesn’t matter anymore. In CSI terms, the evidence has been tainted and is no longer admissible in court.

I agree that Snowden and some others should get medals rather than condemnation but wouldn’t necessarily say that about Assange until I see his pay stubs.

That’s baseless innuendo. Why do it?

Putin should get one too for working with a crap budget, a good temperament and a heart of gold (It’s gold right? Something down the periodic chart…maybe Plutonium?).

Trump will start a shooting war long before he does anything about the Hydra you call the Deep State. He is cross-breeding with reptiles as we speak and making the swamp warmer, deeper and more fetid. If he’s our only remaining hope then, as the saying goes, ” Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.”

Trump is not the biggest problem, America in the run-up to Trump is. For now, the Deep Swamp doesn’t look to be aligned with him. It may yet come to be.

I’m going down my list of formerly rejected POTUS candidates like they were old girlfriends I let get away. Romney looked so bad a few years ago and looks like Lincoln today. There are others. Sigh.

Here’s hoping you don’t pre-select for sociopaths only when it comes to girlfriends.

How timely that an article outlining your particular group of logical fallacies would appear today in the Washington Post. If you want to cut to the chase, Crtl F the link below for “poor attribution.” That’s your approach in a nutshell.

The view from the Heritage; looking back from the other side of the world; it appears the majority of Usian’s have lost their rational minds.
My sister, who still lives in the U.S., never agrees with me, but on this? She does in fact agree.
She lived here for a year before returning; and thinks she returned to a loony bin.
This blog is the last one I comment on; the others have devolved into binary thinking and irrational attempts at conversation and fail to even communicate…pity.
I’m too easily sucked in; so later will be greater; hang in there Ilargi; you put out good stuff and your commentariate, for the most part, are still cogent.

Raul said, “Or is the problem perhaps that Obama and Clinton seemed good alternatives to someone rational?”

This can be taken two ways but I suppose you meant that, to a rational person, Obama and Clinton seemed good alternatives (supposedly alternatives to Trump). But I don’t think this meaning or the other meaning (that Trump is rational) are necessarily true. I doubt whether any candidate who puts their hat into the ring is a good choice – surely, any rational person would see that they are either mad or beholden to their financers. Trump is just crazy and packs his cabinet and main picks with crazy people to ensure that the craziness goes on for four years. I can’t think of one sensible person that he’s nominated in his administration (though I don’t know much about some of them, admittedly). The only plus is that it probably won’t make much difference to the serious long term issues that face all of us.

From being here, you are quite correct. The Usain’s have lost their minds. You could walk all day and night and not meet someone who can think clearly for more than a few sentences. But that’s what happens when everything you’ve heard for 50-70 years has been a total, intentional, clever, plausible, pre-meditated lie.

“We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.” — CIA Director William Casey, 1981

This lie was intended to bring down the United States on schedule and replace it with something more…ameniable. But lies have consequences. When you don’t know what’s going on, you won’t know what to do about it. And worse, if everyone disagrees on what is true, they will fight each other and not you. Which is why lies and propaganda are the currencies of armies and spies. So…Mission Accomplished? Until we start telling the truth somewhere, — until someone even LIKES the truth somewhere as they hate the truth passionately now — this social unrest will not and can not end.

Reminds me of another quote: “Whom the Gods would destroy they first make mad.” In this CNN/NYT-led Reality-Optional world of “I just thought it up so it must be true”, this world of universal, personal psychosis is the very definition of a nation gone insane. I’d worry more about the inability of *anyone* to think clearly than the actions of any one man. This is also why it cannot change without an event. A very VERY big event.